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ELKINS -- Elkins City Council voted to approve an ordinance to create a tax increment financing, or TIF, district in the city on its second and final reading.
All council members present at the city council meeting voted in favor of the proposed ordinance. Fifth Ward Council member Linda Vest was not present.
The council meeting was immediately preceded by a public hearing on the TIF district plan, during which only one person came forward to speak.
Local businessman Lamarr Weese said of the TIF plan, "Once the money comes in it creates a dilemma -- what to do with it. That's a pretty pleasant dilemma to have.
"I think between the leadership of Mayor (Jerry) Marco and the vision of council, along with the community, it'll be interesting to debate that. What do you do with that money? I think the IQ level in this room is high enough to do the right thing."
During the city council meeting, Josh Jarrell, an attorney with the law firm of Spillman Thomas & Battle, spoke before council. The firm has seven offices located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.
First Ward Councilman Rob Chenoweth asked Jarrell, "Who oversees the money coming in to make sure it goes to the right project and the right district. How does that work?"
Jarrell responded, "I think the answer is simply this council will hold the power and control the project as it moves forward. Right now, you're just creating the district and the fund into which the monies go, and the decision as to how the money would be prioritized and utilized would come later. But the city itself will have that decision-making power.
"You will decide whether it will come through a committee or an advisory council or some form of advisors how to structure that, but it will be up to this council."
Asked for a timeline of what will happen next with the TIF district plan, Jarrell said, "The base will be set as of July 1 from last year, and the taxes will not begin to accumulate until you certify the values next year. So, you certify the values next year.
"I don't anticipate that you would see any incremental values begin to materialize until next spring, summer time is when you'd really start to see stuff and it would be very gradual at the beginning. So you've got at least a year, I'd say, from now. Maybe a little less than that before you start to see revenue."
To fund several costly redevelopment projects, the City of Elkins has a plan to issue up to $25 million in tax increment revenue bonds.The TIF district application was approved by the state in April.
The TIF district plan has been controversial, with county officials publicly opposing it.
Randolph County Commissioners David Kesling and Cris Siler told The Inter-Mountain they were stunned to learn that the TIF process, if enacted, would result in some future tax money being rerouted from the county to pay for the city's renovation projects -- and that this would continue for the next 30 years.
In February, the Randolph County Commission announced that it would ask the Department of Economic Development to decline the city's TIF application.
The Commission sent the opposition letter to the Department of Economic Development early in February.